Row 1: Byron Maltez, Phil Naimo, Dr. Rosa Maria Hernandez, Richard A. Alonzo (Superintendent), William A. Masis (NNPS Key Contact), and Annie Webb. Row 2: Maureen Diekmann, Jasmin Medel, James Kodani, Virginia Lampson, Maria Gonzalez, Gabino Alvarado, Angelina Cardenas, Jorge Luna, Rocio Arriaga, and Elaine Kinoshita.
District-Level Leadership for Partnerships
Local District 4 in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a seven-year award winning district, with sustained leadership on partnerships. The local superintendent has maintained support for partnerships, making it possible for a new coordinator for partnerships to take over and “grow” the district’s program over time. This year, Local District 4 focused on involving parents to improve their children’s transition from elementary to middle school. With assistance from Families In Schools, a community-based organization and the LAUSD intervention office, Local District 4’s leaders created a series of six workshops on topics for successful transitions: The Importance of Education, The Middle School Campus, Academic Achievement, Adolescent Social Pressures, Parent Engagement, and Preparing for College.
Transition to Middle School provided parents with information to support and advocate for their early adolescents. The workshops also extended parents’ social networks with other parents and with the parent leaders and teachers who conducted the sessions. The program is preparing more parents to feel comfortable and confident about their child’s and the family’s transition to a new school level.
Facilitation of Schools’ ATPs
One of the primary charges of the Office of School, Family and Community Partnerships is to support the school-level implementation of NNPS approaches to support student achievement and success in school. The leader and staff of this office engage with and support members of schools’ ATPS. To facilitate this support, the Office established School/Community Liaisons’ meetings that identify and design promising partnership practices and that support the plans and actions of the ATPs.
The meetings aim to help the liaisons guide their ATPs to improve the implementation of partnership practices that will help the students in their own schools. Topics are based on the instructional priorities of Local District 4. The topics and the results of the meetings are publicized to school administrators and to school/community liaisons in monthly updates, letters, and other communications. A culminating activity in 2007 brought teams together to celebrate progress and to share success stories about practices that others could use to improve their programs.
See Local District 4's history of Partnership District Awards (previously Local District F) from 2001 to 2006 and examples of Promising Partnership Programs on the website, www.partnershipschools.org, in the section Success Stories. To learn more about this district, visit www.lausd.k12.ca.us and click on Local District 4.